My adventure in gardening is still going strong! We have been enjoying the garden immensely and love planning our meals around our harvests. I have even enjoyed learning from all my mistakes, there are many.
A few things I plan on doing next year to improve the garden:
1. Expanding the garden–I have the perfect space to add 3 raised 4 x 4 beds. More beds=more veggies!
2. Add a timed drip system. With 2 little ones I think this will keep the maintenance lower and keep me happy and the garden happy too (for those days that I forget).
3. Keep all veggies in the square foot and not on the deck. The deck would just get too hot for the pots and also having 2 separate zones to water proved to be challenging with my time constraints. I will still keep all my herbs on the deck but keep all veggies in garden area.
4. Space out my tomatoes. I overcrowded them.
5. Plant the cucumbers in their own space. They had a choke hold on all the other veggies. I will also try them out on the trellis next year.
6. Start all of my own seedlings. I already started stocking up on next year’s seeds. This year I waited too late and had to transplant most of the garden.
7. Stake and trellis all plants immediately. I waited too long this year.
8. Build the trellis higher. Obviously 5 ft was not tall enough for my big tomato plants and corn stalks.
9. Experiment with new veggies: potatoes, squash, green/string beans, rhubarb…..and whatever else I can get my hands on!
Any other garden advice for the novice?
Overall this was an amazing experience and I look forward to keeping it up for years to come!